Status: Single
Country: UK
Signup Date: 11/30/2005
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Sunday, July 12, 2009
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Category: Music
Northern Sky Interview
with Jess Morgan
Interviewer: Allan Wilkinson
In a telephone conversation, a relaxed Norwich based singer songwriter spends a Sunday afternoon talking about everything from Norwich and Norway, Melanie and Woodstock and most importantly, her new EP/Single Crosses.
Photograph: Andi Sapey
AW: How are you today?
JM: I'm good thanks, you?
AW: I'm fantastic, how's the weather down there?
JM: It's lovely actually, yeah.. What would they say; some cloud but mostly bright and dry..
AW: Well you're actually based in Norwich at the moment. Do you find East Anglia conducive to song writing, or do you feel you have to travel to gain sufficient inspiration?
JM: Well I do a lot of travelling just because I have to really, you know to do more gigs in other cities and it does help with the song writing but I really find East Anglia a lovely place to be based and there's always something different to see as well. My city of Norwich is a lot like York really, where I lived before and there's loads of different types of landscapes around so I do find it really really inspiring
AW: Yes it's a beautiful part of the country, nice and quiet, lots of windy roads and of course there's the Broads out there isn't there?
JM: Mmm yeah the Broads are fantastic and we've got a coastline as well which is lovely and if you go up to North Norfolk we've got some rugged coastline and then eight miles East of me there's Great Yarmouth, which is quite a historic town
AW: Well you're pretty much accepted into the thriving Bergen music scene now, how did you first make a connection with Norway?
JM: Well it's quite funny really, I was on a Gram Parsons fan Myspace page and I just got chatting, I say chatting but you know, sending messages to a Norwegian guy over there and he listened to my music and he really liked it. We were sending messages for a few months, talking about different types of music and what we both like and he was suggesting things for me to listen to. He also asked me what was going on in Norwich and I was doing my best to tell him and then he suggested that I could go over there and make some music. I put it out of mind and thought that would be expensive and a bit strange. I was working with a small label in Norwich at the time and things just kept getting in the way, a lot of it was to do with the credit crunch and the economy and it wasn't the record company's fault but I just felt like I kept getting let down and I really wanted to do things. I had the material and I wanted to go and make something so I asked the guy in Norway how much it would cost to go over there and he came back to me with a price and then literally two minutes later he sent another message which said 'oh hang on, if you can come next week just come and do it for free 'cause I've got this window of time'. So I looked at my diary and I was like 'okay' and I booked a ticket and I went and made an album for free pretty much
AW: Oh I see, so that's how it happened?
JM: Yeah
AW: Well I notice you cite as influences the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Gene Clark and of course you just mentioned Gram Parsons; I was talking to Sid Griffin who wrote the Fallen Angel documentary the other week and he says you can't throw a rock without hitting an alt country artist who doesn't owe a debt to the great force that was Gram Parsons. How important are these people to you and your song writing?
JM: Really important, I mean everything I listen to I try and take something in. The stuff I was brought up on wasn't anything like what I listen to now but I still value it as really important. There's some bands that my mum and dad like, like Del Ametri and things like that where it's not dissimilar to what I'm making but I just fell in love with it when I was younger because of things like phrasing and things like that, just things that aren't immediate to the listener but you take them in subconsciously. Then when I started picking my own music to listen to I immediately went for lyric driven stuff and now I go on a lot of recommendations from people. I'm happy to listen to anything but yeah, singer songwriters are really important to me, cause I want to do what they do, if you know what I mean, by their example
AW: The other thing we all do is to delve back into the past, way back, and find out where it all started and get influences from that as well
JM: Yes, definitely, as you know people have said that all music is copied or a lot of it is re-hashed and things like that but I think in a lot of ways you can be really creative like that. I'm not saying I go out of my way to copy songs or anything but I'm quite happy to listen to artists and to learn from what they do and that's why I really like touring with and playing with other musicians that do the same thing that I do. I just take so much of it in and always compare and even though things are different there's still something to learn from everybody I think
AW: Now you would describe yourself variously as a singer songwriter who falls somewhere right in the middle of folk, alt country and Americana, is that a fair assessment?
JM: Yeah, yeah I think that's perfect actually
AW: Well I'm personally becoming more and more drawn into the music that falls under the broad banner of Americana with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Rachel Harrington and Rod Picott and Amanda Shires, who of course we both share an interest in; do you find it harder to break into that scene coming from the part of the world you do or are those barriers coming down a bit more now?
JM: Every year it's a little bit more of a novelty so it's kind of something that sticks out a bit more so in that sense people come up and say 'oh that's a little bit country isn't it' and 'I kinda like that' and they might ask why I'm doing it. It immediately creates an interest over here, which is a good thing, but yeah, it is American artists that really hold the banner don't they?
AW: Yes indeed, and they're getting more and more invites now to all the regional folk festivals, some even have Americana stages
JM: It's really fantastic to see though because I really like American music
Photograph: Nick Howlett
AW: Now what about your new EP? Is it an EP or a single, what would you like to refer to it as?
JM: Well I was referring to it as a single purely because I've pulled some of the tracks out of the album that I've made but then I've been a bit told off about that with people saying well actually it's an EP sort of thing, but I'm quite happy for you to refer to it either way
AW: Well for now let's refer to it as a CD, so the new CD, officially released yesterday?
JM: The day before yesterday (Friday 10 July)
AW: Well it's got two lead tracks the first being "Crosses", which I notice on your press release has been described as 'outstanding', but I think that was by me..
JM: By you (laughs)
AW: ..after first hearing you sing it at a gig in York and I still think that, can you tell us a little bit about the song?
JM: It's quite an old song, one I wrote I suppose it's about a year ago and meaning wise there's a lot of strands of meaning in there that involves a lot of things I was thinking about. If it's not too depressing to say, the main narrative in it is about somebody who's thinking about a loved one who has passed on and wondering in their head what happens when people die. I guess it's kind of about what we generally think, what different religions think or what the kind of estuary way of thinking is and I just got into the mood when I was writing it. I felt a strong sense of character of the person who's really singing the song.. it's really hard to describe "Crosses" it's really a tough one..
AW: It is, I know what you mean though, it's got that kind of melancholy feel to it but it's not a minor key brooding song; it's kind of uplifting in it's own way; I think it's a good choice for the single from the album
JM: Oh brilliant.. and I got to play a bit of my banjo on there as well which is good
AW: Well you can't beat a banjo and if you're going to be into Americana you've got to live with your banjo
JM: Yeah
AW: Well the other lead song on the CD is "Pamela" which is pretty classic story telling, do you find it easy to get a narrative going like that?
JM: I do actually yes, ever since I was a little girl I've always loved writing stories and being able to do it to music is a real treat but.. and this is not in an arrogant way, I could write ten stories like that but only some of them make it to songs that I would play live because I only want to really write about things that people can relate to and find interesting otherwise it's not really folk music, then it becomes something more self indulgent
AW: That's a good observation
JM: The thing with "Pamela" is that it takes place in a different time to what we are now and they are characters. The words' detail is around Pamela's father who will do this and do that, but really it's about how the main character feels about Pamela and I hope this comes through in the song, about feeling that maybe you shouldn't love someone who's been through such a terrible tragedy but maybe now certain things are out of the way you might go for it. That's the main thing and I think people definitely could identify with that and whatever time in history it is or whoever you may be
AW: This is the thing with classic stories; this is what we do relate to. There's two additional songs on the CD both of which are by no means fill-ins, I particularly like the brooding atmosphere of "Gut Row" which incidentally references Mollie Malone, better known as "Cockles and Mussels", the imagery in that song is superb, how did that one come to you?
JM: I wrote that one, again a little while ago. I was really inspired to write it after I went to a museum we've got in Great Yarmouth called the Time and Tide Museum, which is built in an old herring distillery where they turn herrings into kippers and they smoke them. You go in there and you can still smell the smoke and it's really fantastic. I just thought this town has got so much history and I live here and I know nothing about it, so for about a month I was really absorbed in the fishing trade in Great Yarmouth. The song is from a woman's perspective, thinking about constantly moving around and worrying about members of the family because the fishing trade would tie up all the men in a lot of families over generations. It's a really big deal for somebody who's stuck at home making the lunch so I just thought I'd try and tell a story from their perspective. When I'm really into something or really inspired or moved by something that's real in history then you can't stop me writing, I do tons of verses then cut it down to the most concise
AW: This is folk music
JM: Yeah
AW: Perhaps the quirkiest song on the CD is "Who Killed Cock Robin" once again a classic story and classic story telling, this time incorporating the strangest slide guitar motif, which reminds me of a cross between the old Edgar Wallace Man of Mystery theme and the Third Man, you're too young to remember of course.. did you play that?
JM: That's HP (Gundersen) the Norwegian co-producer, he's a fantastic slide player and pedal steel as well, I mean you might have noticed the really spooky pedal steel on "Gut Row". Not only is he a fantastic player but what I love so much about working with him is that he listens to my ideas and if I had an idea which was a bit wacky he didn't just sort of, I don't know I could be wrong, but your bog standard British producer would say 'oh no, that's going to sound rubbish'. He just gave everything I thought of a go and in this song I thought of this kind of tango musical motif and he just played it and said 'what if we do it like this?'. Between us we came up with the arrangement and he played it and it sounded really really freaky but we also wanted that song to have a good sense of humour
AW: Well it works
JM: I wrote the lyrics but the idea of the cock robin and a sparrow and his bow and arrow I found from a medieval poem when I was in the library in Norwich. There was a book left on the table and I just started to have a look at it and I saw this and thought wow that's fantastic, I want to make a murder ballad out of that. It's not folk music unless you've got a song about talking birds and frogs and animals and things, so I thought I'd better have one of those (laughs)
AW: Well I must tell you about something now, a coincidence; when I first heard your voice last year at that York gig, I was almost instantly reminded of Melanie (Safka), the Sixties singer songwriter who appeared at Woodstock and low and behold, a recent visit to your website revealed you covering one of her songs "Brand New Key"
JM: Yes, yes I did
AW: Have others noticed the similarity or is it just a coincidence?
JM: Well I don't know if it's a similarity thing but on the second trip I made to Norway I played at a Woodstock revival concert, which was quite a well paid gig and it was a well attended. There were 800 people there in this big concert hall and there were some really established musicians there, I think Joe Cocker's guitarist was there playing something, really nerve wracking stuff. They were all playing certain songs and they thought it would be fun if I played something as well so they gave me Melanie. I went through a lot of her songs, which really introduced me to the artist because I'd not really listened to her that much before. I didn't really want to do "Brand New Key", I just thought that's what people would expect, but actually it was the one that really leapt out and I just thought of all the songs, that's the one I thought I could really perform
AW: I don't know if you were aware of this but when that song was first released in the early Seventies, some radio stations banned it for it's overt sexual innuendo
JM: Oh really?
AW: Who would've thought it?
JM: Radio stations are a fickle lot aren't they?
AW: They are indeed. Well Melanie has got a distinctive voice and you do as well and although they are not the same, they have a similar essence I think. When are we likely to see the release of the album?
JM: Well.. it's a tricky one that because although I've done the single myself I can't really financially back putting the album out myself on my own label, so I'm looking to get some help with that so I'm hoping somebody else will pick it up. I mean it's recorded, mixed and almost mastered, ready to go, twelve tracks, that I'm really really proud of but the aim of the single I think is to drum up as much interest in the music as possible and to get some things that I could put together, a series of facts and the responses back from the single to maybe send out to a few labels that I like and see if they'd be interested in putting something else out
AW: Well you picked four good songs to showcase the potential for the album so good luck with that; I imagine "Onyx" and "Due Grace Coming" will be on the album?
JM: Yep, they'll both be on there
AW: Any more songs that you're particularly excited about?
JM: I'm excited about the whole thing really, I mean it's really quite an upbeat record actually, which I never thought it would be. There's no drums on there but there are other instruments, I kind of ummed and ah'd about whether it was going to be completely pure and just me but I thought well no I do that live so I'll offer people something else. Everything's done so tastefully and so I'm really just excited about the whole thing and the flow between songs as well, I thought quite carefully about the running order and I think it'll be just something that people could put on first thing in the morning
AW: Who have you got working with you?
JM: I had HP Gundersen co-producing and we had a fiddle player called David, I'm not really sure how to pronounce his surname, and there's an Indian sitar on one of the tracks, a track called "Talisman" which has come out really nice. That was one of my ideas and again nobody looked at my like I was a mad woman, we just got the sitar player in. Everyone played for free or just for their credit on the record. There's a live track as well; we did a house concert last time I was in Norway, I've been three times now, the last time we went we planned a house concert which was really well attended and we filmed it and at the end of this song I've got called "Workhouse" we just sort of go into this big Celtic jam in the key of C, which is you know, the 'people's key' (laughs). It was really fun and it came out so well I liked to tag it onto the end, so that'd be the twelfth track and I thought it would be really nice to have something live on there as well
AW: well you've got some live dates over the next month over in the Norfolk area as well as Bedford and Coventry, I do hope it's not long before we see you return to Yorkshire..
JM: Oh I'd love to come back
AW: ..but for now Jess Morgan, thanks for talking to us and good luck with everything
JM: Oh you're welcome, thanks for calling
Crosses is now available through Jess Morgan's website:
www.jessmorgan.co.uk
11:55
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